Post signs generally comprise a message panel supported cantilever-fashion at one end by a single post, or supported at both ends by separate posts. Post signs are used in a variety of exterior sign applications, for example, to identify the name and address of a particular building or establishment, or to inform visitors of vehicular or pedestrian access routes.
Post signs, as with other building amenities, can be custom designed and individually fabricated for a particular application. This custom design and construction requires design, engineering, and fabrication services to produce signs which harmonize with the architectural setting of the building or other location, and which meet the appearance and quality standards of the surrounding environment. The cost of such custom signage may be difficult to justify in many applications. For this reason, manufactured sign systems are becoming increasingly popular.
Manufactured sign systems typically provide various interchangeable sign components, such as posts and message panels, which are interchangeably connectable to provide a post sign meeting the physical and architectural requirements of many diverse applications. The posts, panels, and other sign components are separately manufactured and cataloged; the architect or builder then specifies the components necessary to yield the desired signs, which are assembled on-site from these components. This arrangement provides the manufacturing economies and quality control benefits of manufactured products, and the interchangeability of related components in a sign system allows the architect some latitude in selecting the overall configuration and appearance of a particular assembled sign.
Because the posts, panels, and other components of manufactured signs are assembled at a job site to form the complete post sign, these components should mutually interconnect and assemble with the use of conventional tools. Moreover, signs assembled from manufactured components should be aesthetically pleasing, having no exposed slots, openings or the like frequently used for interconnecting message panels with one or more support posts. Furthermore, any interconnecting hardware used in the assembly, such as bolts, screws, clips, tabs, keys or the like, should be concealed from view or relatively unobstrusive at the most, in the finished product, so as not to detract from the overall aesthetic appearance of the sign.